How Your Reproductive Health Became a "Political Bargaining Chip"

Many months ahead of the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, an unexpected battleground state has gotten renewed attention in national politics. Over the past few weeks, Republican presidential candidates have rolled into uteruses across America.

According to a press release issued today, Sen. Rand Paul will announce a Senate deal to vote "in a matter of days" on whether or not to defund Planned Parenthood at an anti-abortion rally in Washington this afternoon. The Kentucky senator told Fox News on Sunday of his plans to push Congress to cut support for Planned Parenthood in the aftermath of undercover videos that seem to show officials at the non-profit discussing the sale of fetal tissue. At least Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is convinced, promising on Monday to race the proposed legislation to the Senate floor. While Planned Parenthood maintains that it has broken no laws and stresses the extensive services it provides to all women, Paul is unequivocal.

"I think the time is now to discuss whether taxpayer dollars should be going to such a gruesome procedure," Paul said. "People are outraged by this, and I think the American people deserve to have a vote on it."

But Republican candidate Scott Walker is not content to wait to put the issue on the ballot. The Governor of Wisconsin took action last week, approving a bill that bans almost all abortions beyond the 20-week mark and offers no exemptions for instances of rape, incest, or severe fetal abnormalities.

For Wisconsin Representative Lisa Subeck, the public debate runs counter to the very private nature of reproductive health: "On a broad level, I have always believed that decisions to terminate a pregnancy—at any point in that pregnancy—should be left to a woman and her physician and those that she chooses to include in that decision-making process."

As Subeck stresses, Scott Walker used to share in that sentiment. During his most recent gubernatorial race, Walker declared that he, too, believed that the government should keep out of reproductive health decisions.

"There are clear political motivations at play here," Subeck asserts. "At the state level, we have seen an upsurge of attacks on women, women's health, and reproductive rights that coincides conveniently enough with our governor running for president. When Scott Walker last ran for governor, he tried to look a little more moderate. Now, he knows that to get the Republican nomination, he needs to appeal to the most extreme right-wing voters in these early primaries. In many ways, he is throwing women under the figurative bus to Iowa."

To protect the women and doctors stuck in the political crossfire, State Senator Jon Erpenbach proposed an amendment to the legislation that would have allowed abortion providers to prioritize the lives of mothers over the lives of fetuses in emergencies. It was shot down.

"We didn't get any support at all from Republicans," Erpenbach recounts. "And I'm not surprised, really. There are no moderate Republicans anymore—not really. Back when there was such a thing as moderation in the Republican legislature, legislation that is this extreme would never have even made it to the floor."

And while reports suggest that the bill will be overruled in court, Erpenbach sees no reason to relax his position.

"The point is that [Republicans] tried to do this," he contends. "That should be an eye opener to anybody who cares about access to abortion. They may not get what they want this time, but they will keep at it."

"The time for being offended has come to an end," Erpenbach continues. "People just have to get involved. They need to step up. They need to vote. They need to talk to anybody and everybody about the political process and why it's so important. It's time for action."

For Subeck, the terms of this debate themselves are all but devised to hurt women: "Our health has been made into a political bargaining chip, and that's unfair. There are people who want to disempower women and wish we could go back to a time long before I was born where we were barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. These Republican candidates want to appeal to them."

Steadfast in his support for Planned Parenthood, Erpenbach is determined to make it very transparent: "I have yet to meet anybody in my time walking this earth that likes abortion. Nobody does. But what people need to realize is there are going to be situations that require the termination of a pregnancy for a lot of reasons. You don't want a government that feels so emboldened to be able to say to that individual, 'Nope, sorry. You can't do that.'"

In the meantime, he concludes, "it's a frustrating time for someone who supports reproductive rights."

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